Cafeteria Food
by Oh-Juice
Summary: Finn and Rachel revive their relationship after an awkward lunch encounter. Set after Special Education. Centered around Finn's view of it all. Just a one-shot for now, unless you want me to continue! Reviews would be wonderful.


Finn's stomach growled, and he looked down at his empty lunchbox with a frown. He'd forgotten to pack something. Usually, when he'd gotten to school, if he couldn't afford the lunch there due to forgetting his cash, or he'd forgotten to ask his mom to make him a sandwich or something the day before since it was a wonder Finn could even touch a microwave without it bursting into flames, Rachel would have brought him a cupcake or a tin of banana bread, skillfully chosen to give to him the only day that he'd forget it. Her banana bread was delicious, all nutty and sweet. But, no. Now Finn was left with his empty hand-me-down lunchbox and two paperclips he'd found scrounging for change at the bottom of his backpack. Still, he came up short.

His stomach barked at him again, and he let out a small groan of discomfort at the table. He felt the other kids in the glee club who he'd chosen to sit with that day glance over at him, and he rested his head on his arm propped up by his elbow before giving them a glance back. "I forgot my lunch."

"Why don't you ask someone for money, then?" Santana asked, but it sounded more like she was correcting him than actually asking something.

"Can I borrow five bucks?" He felt his eyes narrow at Santana. He had conflicting feelings about that girl. I mean, sure, she was smokin' and stuff, but she was a total bitch. So sure, he could steal a glance in the hall or two, but beyond that was just stupid on both ends of it.

"I said 'ask someone,' not 'ask me'," She clarified with a roll of her eyes, and went back to looking back down at her pedicured nails with a cursory glance towards him.

Finn pursed his lips and looked back to the rest of the group. "Uh, anyone else? Five bucks?"

"I only brought enough for myself," Artie said with a small shrug of his shoulders and an apologetic look sent his way.

"I have... Nothing." Quinn shook her head.

"Nada," Puck added, though Finn completely ignored his input anyways.

The rest of the club shook their heads and went back to their conversations, and Finn's stomach went back to purring like a cat in heat. He wanted food. He wouldn't survive football if he didn't get something in his system, and he wasn't going to skip it. He needed to look good, so that Coach Beiste would let him be Quarterback perminently. Sam was cool and all, but Finn wanted the place he'd won for himself last year back. But he had no money and no food, and everyone else at his table had already finished eating, and Finn wasn't just going to munch on thier scraps of mushy cafeteria salad and coleslaw. So instead, he got another idea.

Finn stood up from the table, and walked across the lunchroom. It was like a jungle, really. When he passed the popular table, with the people he used to know and sit next to daily, he felt them smirking at him. He simply walked on, though he had to admit that his reputation still meant a whole lot to him. He was never going to give that up so quickly. By the time he reached the cafeteria lady, he stood there for a second before speaking.

"Hey. I'm Finn Hudson... I forgot my money." He said with a small genuine smile sent her way.

"No money, no food," The lady said back without missing a beat and re-adjusted her hair net. Finn tried to keep from wrinkling his nose. Hair net... Gross.

"But I-"

"No money, no food."

His stomach made another audible buzz and she glanced down at it, her eyebrows raising, before glancing back up to him with an expasperated look.

"Fine," She growled with an exhausted sigh before wiping a bead of sweat off her brow, "But you have to work for it. Now stop clogging up the line and grab a hair-net. You're working back here."

Finn felt his own eyebrows raised and made a glance around. This was social suicide. He'd look like he was poor or anti-social or something! But... He was really hungry. He actually thought he could feel his stomach eating his heart... Was that possible? They were all connected through something, he thought to himself... "Deal," He said eventually, and jogged to the back of the lunch room. Seeing the hair nets, he gave them a disgusted glance before eventually picking one up and putting it on his head. He probably looked completely redicious. But eventually he walked back, and he stood in front of the little cartons of milk he was expected to hand out as people went by in the line. This seemed easy enough. He'd be chowing down on mediocre prison food in no time.

As the line started to flow again, it was easy enough. He'd hand out a few whole milks, a few low-fats, a chocolate milk or two. Soon enough, he wasn't even paying attention to what types of people were going by. He was starting to get lost in his thoughts. He missed Rachel. If she and him were still dating, he wouldn't have even really been in this embarassing mess. He continued to hand out milk, not giving people eye contact, and eventually not even looking up from the plastic boxes.

"Whole or lowfat?"

"Lowfat."

He handed the boy a lowfat milk.

"Whole or lowfat... We're out of chocolate."

"Ugh. Whole, I guess."

"Whole or lowfat?"

"None, thank you..." He heard a certain sort of hesitation in the familiar voice. His head snapped up from where he was looking and caught the girl's eye. Rachel Berry. He stood there frozen for a second as she continued, her nature making her unable to stop talking during seemingly awkward silences. "I think I'll just stick to some water... Milk and dairy products are bad for the vocal cords. Not to mention, I'm vegan.." She looked like she might have tried to send him a smile, but in light of the circumstances, it just came out as less of a frown.

"I- uh.. Sure," He said, grabbing a water bottle and handing it over to her. Now, when he saw her, he only saw her and Puck. Puck Puck Puck. Finn was sure he hated him. He couldn't date one girl without Puck having to go and ruin every good relationship he'd ever been in. He saw the kid behind her nudge her in the side and grumble something while the others hollered at her to hurry up.

When Rachel nodded her head and retrieved the waterbottle from his hand, she tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear. "Thank you," She said softly. She looked up at his hair and supressed a smile, Finn could tell, and in any other situation he'd probably roll his eyes at her playfully.

"Yeah," He said, his eyes still locked on hers, though she had started to walk away.

Shit. This was stupid. Why did she have to cheat on him? He felt hurt and lonesome, but he also just... Wanted her back. It'd been about five days, and he'd already wanted her back. He was weak, but he just didn't really see how he could go on without her for too long. I mean, it'd only been some lunch this time, but he'd missed the reminders, the comfort, the kisses, the feelings... The songs! All of it. And Finn felt like he'd done something wrong by breaking up with her, even if he didn't have changed feelings over what had happened.

"Hey," He felt a poke to his side as the Lunch-lady poked him with a gloved finger. He snapped back into reality.

"Whoa- Wh- what?" He asked, clearly being snapped out of a trance.

"Your work sentence is up," She declared and put her hand out, obviously too short to grab the hair net on the top of his head. He let out a small grin as he ripped it off of his head and gave it to her. She didn't seem disgusted with the hair nets at all... He nodded as she handed him a pre-made tray stacked with some of the left-overs from lunch that nobody particularly liked enough to get seconds of, such as the overcooked hash browns or the half-frozen chicken patties. Either way, he'd eat it whether it was good or not.

He took a seat out in the empty hall next to his locker, since he was pretty sure study hall had started and he wouldn't be allowed to eat in there. As he started to take a bite of the baked beans that were splattered onto a part of his tray, he heard footsteps and then a sudden stop. When he glanced up, a little bit of the sauce smudged on the side of his mouth, he saw the familiar girl again. Really, neither time was coincidence, since they obviously went to the same school and ate at the same lunch time had had lockers practically next to each others, but he still felt his stomach fall into his gut as she went back to walking, a little more slowly, before reaching her locker.

"Hello," She said after a second of shuffling through her binders. He looked up at her to see the kitten calendar and other cute little locker ornaments involving him gone. Sure, they'd been a little creepy at first, but kind of endearing. It felt weird to look and not see it there. When his eyes shifted back to Rachel, she was looking down at him. "Why are you eating out here?" She asked curiously,

"I forgot my lunch."

She nodded her head slowly. "Why didn't you just... Ask someone for money?" She said the same words as Santana, except that hers didn't sound judgemental. Hers sounded concerned.

"Nobody I asked had any." Finn shrugged his shoulders a little bit.

"Why didn't you ask me?" She asked, before taking out a paper-clipped five dollars from a little pocket of her bag. Finn blinked. "I always keep five dollars extra..."

"I, uh... I don't know. I just didn't think about it, I guess." He glanced back down to his lunch, and he took another bite. He felt her look down at him for a second before looking over to see her sit down next to him. He didn't know if he felt uncomfortable, or whether this should have felt nice. Normal.

"Finn... You know I'm sorry, right?"

Finn glanced over at her, and he felt his eyes narrow a little bit. "That doesn't make it better."

"But ... We're a team, right? We're part of something special...? Co-captains?" She asked. It sounded almost desprate. It reminded him of when he was begging for her back from Jesse. She looked over to his eyes, searching them for some sort of sign of understanding or trust. He just stared back, not even knowing how to describe how he felt.

"It's just... It's stupid! I feel like I can't just fall in love with a girl without Puckerman having to go and ruin everything with his stupid guns and his stupid face..." Finn said frustratedly, and his head rested against the back of the locker as he closed his eyes exasperatedly for a second. "And I was just starting to forgive the guy too... And you. You... Why would you do that to me?" He gave her another glance. He looked like a puppy who had just gotten kicked in the face.

"I'm so sorry... I just... I was selfish." Rachel shook her head. "I'm trying to be less selfish Finn.. You know I am. I've been trying..." She felt tears start to drip down her face. This felt like a break-up all over again. "But I miss you... And I love you. That hasn't changed."

Finn felt a certain weakness for that. She sounded sincere... She sounded almost as hurt as he felt over losing him. It was stupid to remain miserable and alone without one another, and he was never going to get over the hurt if they never even spoke anymore. "I miss you too," He said almost under his breath that he didn't even think she'd be able to hear, but Rachel's glance up to him proved him otherwise. By then, his tray of lunch was placed on the ground and completely forgotten about. It was probably the middle of class, but he could care less.

"Can we just.. try to fix this?"

Finn took a second before nodding his head. "Yeah. We'll get through this... But it's stupid to go at it alone." He paused for a second. "And I love you."

She leaned up to press a small soft kiss to his cheek, the evaporated tears feeling damp against his jaw, and his hand went to hers before he leaned in to press a nostalgic kiss of his own to her lips. It was soft and sweet, and lingered. It was innocent, yet at the same time it felt familiar... That was, until a rush of students came flooding out of the classrooms. He glanced up to see students stampeding past them in the halls before Rachel rushed herself to her feet, brushing off her skirt before putting down a hand to help him up with a small smile. It wasn't full forgiveness, since they'd obviously have to work at this before it was resolved, but it was ten times better to her than being broken up with Finn, it seemed. He got to his feet, and was about to grab his tray before someone stepped into the leftover food. A jock. The guy gave him a scowl afterwards and wiped his shoe on a near-by nerd's backpack before continuing off. The tray looked disgusting. He wrinkled his nose a little before picking it up by the side and starting off to the cafeteria to drop it off.

"I'll make you some banana bread tomorrow," Rachel said as he turned to walk away.

He turned around and sent her the first smile he'd sent her in what seemed like forever.

"I'd love that." 


End file.
